Parshat Vayigash opens where last week’s parsha, Miketz, left us with a cliffhanger. The goblet has been found in Benjamin’s sack, and Joseph pronounces judgment: “Only the one in whose possession the goblet was found shall be my slave; the rest of you go back in peace to your father” (Genesis 44: 17). We are left for a week imagining the unbearable consequences. This week Judah steps forward and delivers one of the most moving speeches in the Torah, offering himself as a slave in place of Benjamin so that his father will not die of grief. He concludes: “For how can I go back to my father unless the boy is with me? Let me not witness the woe that would overtake my father” (44:34).

TEARS

At that moment Joseph breaks down completely. He orders everyone out of the room and weeps so loudly that the sound carries through the palace. He reveals himself to his brothers, embraces Benjamin, kisses them all, and cries again. Only then are the brothers able to speak.

This is the beginning of what might be called the seven scenes of Joseph’s tears. Joseph weeps repeatedly: when he overhears his brothers’ remorse, when he sees Benjamin, when he reveals himself, when he reunites with his father, when Jacob dies, and finally when his brothers—after Jacob’s death—lie to him and claim that their father asked Joseph to forgive them. Joseph’s tears are everywhere.

Are these tears sincere? Or are they crocodile tears?

The phrase “crocodile tears” refers to a display of emotion that masks violence or guilt. Folklore imagines the crocodile weeping as it devours its prey. Joseph’s tears force us to ask uncomfortable questions. Why does he cry so easily? Is he overwhelmed by emotion? Is he reliving unresolved trauma? Or is there something more troubling going on—something that connects his tears to power?

My intuition is that Joseph never truly forgives his brothers, despite what the text and the commentaries want us to believe. His final tears, when the brothers fear revenge, suggest not reassurance but distrust. They reopen the wound of betrayal. Joseph is........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)